The present invention relates in general to motor vehicle exterior lighting systems, and, more specifically, to a trim piece bezel and illumination system having a signature image such as a name or logo that is visible under both ambient light (e.g., in the daytime) and vehicle-supplied light (e.g., from the headlamp at night).
In the competitive motor vehicle market, vehicle styling is a very important aspect of design. With regard to vehicle lighting systems, various important illumination functions must be achieved while maintaining attractive styling. Various types of accent lighting have been employed for both headlamps and tail lamps in order to give a distinctive appearance to individual vehicle models.
Accent lighting is often obtained using dedicated light sources (such as LEDs) which can be easily incorporated into a headlamp or taillight housing or other vehicle structures to configure the lighting to almost any desired location, shape, or color. While dedicated light sources are easy to control and to adapt to any desired configuration, they are expensive to manufacture and install. Furthermore, independent light sources might not be permitted by governmental regulations. For example, when headlamps are set to low beam, only certain lamp functions (e.g., park lamps and side marker or position lamps) are usually allowed—so that independently driven signature lighting cannot be used.
It is also known in the art to tap the main light source, such as the headlamp (high beam and/or low beam), to redirect a certain amount of light to an accent feature. In such systems, however, it is a challenge to produce even illumination (e.g., with no hot-spots) while utilizing only inexpensive components. It would be desirable to obtain illumination of a signature image (such as a logo, name, or other graphic or textual content) using inexpensive molded plastic parts with even illumination and that has an attractive appearance under both ambient light conditions (e.g., daylight) and backlit conditions, and that avoids creation of glare that may hamper visibility of other drivers.